STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: THE BOSNIANS AND YUGOSLAV VOLUNTEERS IN THE 1948 WAR IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: THE BOSNIANS AND YUGOSLAV VOLUNTEERS IN THE 1948 WAR IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the role of the Bosnian and other Yugoslav volunteers who fought on the Arab side in the Palestine war, Israel’s War of Independence, in 1948. Previous studies have only mentioned these volunteers in passing but through the use of intelligence reports, archival sources and recently published interviews with surviving participants this article reconstructs their role in the war. The case of the Bosnian participation in the 1948 war is of consequence today because of the frequent use of globalized Islamic imagery to promote the inter-connectedness of conflicts throughout the world to Muslim communities and encourage recruitment of Muslims for ’Jihad’ in an international context. The role of the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al Husayni, in recruiting local Bosnians to fight in Palestine is an early example of this tendency in modern times.

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